As many of you know, Google Chrome OS is now available as a VMware VM. You can download from gdgt
http://gdgt.com/google/chrome-os/download/
I think the guys from gdgt just compiled the source from the Chromium OS project… and using this as bait to increase traffic to their site. Anyway, they did an ok job and you do have to register on gdgt to download it.
Here are some screenshots of Chrome OS.
The OS looks extremely similar to the Chrome browser, and it is basically a complete standalone version of Google Chrome. This early developer build has very little configurable options… actually apart from those security and web related options you get from the Chrome browser there are only options to enable Tap to Click, and some mouse/touchpad sensitivity settings.
From the screenshots you will notice that ChromeOS detected that it is running on a laptop computer and it has a space to display battery levels. You can also config timezone settings. The only problem was that the screen resolution was locked to 1024 x 768 and could not be changed.
Page rendering performance was also quite poor, possibly due to the lack of 3D acceleration from the VM. This is very noticeable as you scroll up and down, and when you have a Flash movie loaded.
That’s right, Flash is supported! Youtube works… but the performance is horrible, and again probably due to the lack of graphic acceleration.
From what I can tell from this early development version of Chrome OS, I’d say that Google has done a great job of moving from desktop computing to cloud computing, and bringing desktop applications to web applications. From the start, you login with your Google ID and everything you see is generated and supported by the cloud… and of course the courtesy of an active connection to the Internet.
Aside from the buzz it has generated, Chrome OS is not going to be too useful to the average user right now. Especially when you have Windows or MacOS preinstalled on your machine already. Maybe it will make more sense for low-power netbooks, but even then it will be useless without access to the Internet.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Strangely I was on GDGT last night and saw that post. Since I can't run Ubuntu Remix or Jollycloud on my laptop, I'm hoping this will be my need-to-boot-quick OS. Gotta say I enjoy how they've optimized on the screen real-estate. What's offline mode like?
this dev build has screen res set to 1024 x 768 and I didn't find an option to change it.
haven't tried out Offline Mode… didn't see the option to enable it..?
I’m not really looking for a desktop OS replacement on the web and what’s nice is that the Extension is very unobtrusive and IMHO very useful.
I have to agree on the comment about extensions. I think thats perhaps the most important piece that will drive Chrome OS to the mass. but again, this version of Chromium build does not do any justice for that, and so far performance is lacking big time. Also, the offline mode was never found in this build. I'm not sure if I can just install offline GEAR to make it work…
I have to agree on the comment about extensions. I think thats perhaps the most important piece that will drive Chrome OS to the mass. but again, this version of Chromium build does not do any justice for that, and so far performance is lacking big time. Also, the offline mode was never found in this build. I'm not sure if I can just install offline GEAR to make it work…